Using a Non-Judgmental Stance to Promote Trustworthiness in Action Research
Location
2073
Format Type
Paper
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
14-1-2017 3:30 PM
End Date
14-1-2017 3:50 PM
Abstract
Interviewing as a primary source of data is subject to the trustworthiness of the respondents. As lecturers interviewing our students, we understand that the nature of our relationship could have an impact on the trustworthiness of our data. We believed that adopting a non-judgemental stance could resolve this issue. We implemented an action research to improve our teaching of French with Facebook on mobile phones. In order to provide all students with equal learning opportunities, we gave everyone a subsidy to cover the cost of mobile Internet access. We regularly interviewed our students to evaluate our action plan. In order to remain open to all interpretation of the events and to promote honest feedback, we openly adopted a non-judgmental stance. As a result, students freely revealed how they used funds, which were given to them, to access mobile Internet. Findings showed that not all students used the money as we had anticipated and that they spoke without restraints on the matter. Based on this behavior, we reflected on how this stance helped validate the trustworthiness of the data for the research and encouraged us to focus on not judging our informants.
Using a Non-Judgmental Stance to Promote Trustworthiness in Action Research
2073
Interviewing as a primary source of data is subject to the trustworthiness of the respondents. As lecturers interviewing our students, we understand that the nature of our relationship could have an impact on the trustworthiness of our data. We believed that adopting a non-judgemental stance could resolve this issue. We implemented an action research to improve our teaching of French with Facebook on mobile phones. In order to provide all students with equal learning opportunities, we gave everyone a subsidy to cover the cost of mobile Internet access. We regularly interviewed our students to evaluate our action plan. In order to remain open to all interpretation of the events and to promote honest feedback, we openly adopted a non-judgmental stance. As a result, students freely revealed how they used funds, which were given to them, to access mobile Internet. Findings showed that not all students used the money as we had anticipated and that they spoke without restraints on the matter. Based on this behavior, we reflected on how this stance helped validate the trustworthiness of the data for the research and encouraged us to focus on not judging our informants.
Comments
Breakout Session I